


Rationalization

by squidballsinc



Category: Assassination Classroom, Persona 5
Genre: (the fic), 3E enters the Metaverse, Bomb Squad™ | Freeform, Canon-Typical Violence, I literally just thought of that and now im attached, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Persona5!AU, The Author Regrets Nothing, headcannon: pro assassin found family au, irregular updates, semi-cannon compliant, slight P5/P5R spoilers later on, that part's still up in the air
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:07:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26606476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squidballsinc/pseuds/squidballsinc
Summary: Class 3E, the assassination classroom, full of young minds learning to kill their teacher. With the help of an app called the Metanav, they make use of an alternate dimension to accomplish their mission. Will they be able to do the octopus off before he destroys the world? Or will the Metaverse prove to be a tricky thing to play with?- - - - -Aka. my take on a Persona5!AU. Knowledge on the persona franchise isn't necessary but is recommended.
Relationships: Asano Gakuhou & Karasuma Tadaomi & Irina Jelavić
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	1. Exposition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and thanks for giving this fic a chance! This is my first attempt at writing a fic that has an overarching plotline to follow so constructive criticism is appreciated. Anyway the first chapter is really boring and I've decided to fuck update schedules so I hope y'all are ok with that. Enjoy!

Class 3E sat in anticipation as a monstrous octopus called out the last name in the book. 

“That’s everyone! Let’s get going, everyone stand for the pledge!”

“Right. Nav’s at the ready!” A black hair boy called out, everyone stood at attention and pulled out their phones. “Mementos!”

_**Beginning navigation…** _

The world warped around them, the sky tinting itself red, the walls becoming alive. 

_**Navigation complete. Welcome to** _ **Mementos** _**.** _

“Everyone aim, hold… hold-”

The octopus blinked.

“Fire!”

A hail of bullets rang out. Gunshots ricocheting off the wall, not hitting a single person. Even the octopus they were shooting was still unharmed, evading their attack.

“Well I guess we’re not doing the pledge then… Okay. You may keep shooting as I take attendance. Isogai.”

“H-huh?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over all these gunshots. Can you speak up please?” 

“Um… Here!!”

“Okano.”

“Here!!”

“Kataoka.”

“Here!!”

As the octopus called out names the students didn’t stop firing. Their attack was relentless until the final name was called. 

“Everyone’s here… And on time! Wonderful! I’m so happy!”

And at that moment one single thought rang throughout the class. _He’s too fast!! All those bullets… And we missed?!_

“You missed. Again. That’s too bad. You’re relying too much on the “spray and pray” method. Consider your line of sight… Where you’re aiming… Your trigger finger… Your method is too predictable. You have to come up with a more original plan. I’m too quick for you. I can move at mach 20, remember?”

They were assassins. And their target? Their teacher.

**\- - - - -**

“Are you really dodging all those bullets? Well, they’re more like BB’s than bullets…” Maehara said, incredulous. “Maybe we’re hitting you, but you’re just pretending we didn't!”

This caused an uproar.

“Yeah you’re cheating!!!”

“Boo!!! Booo!!!”

The octopus sighed, “Okay, someone please hand me a gun that’s loaded. Like I said…” He held the gun up to a tentacle. “These bullets --BB’s-- are harmless in the real world.”

He pulled the trigger, the tentacle blowing off and disintegrating into shadows.

“But they were designed especially for the Metaverse.”

They students gasped, backing away from the spectacle.

The octopus continued, “They can cut through me like pudding. Heh. Of course I can regenerate lost limbs and such in a few seconds.” They watched in wonder as more shadows came to replace the lost limb, the tentacle returning back to normal in seconds.

“But I wouldn’t want anybody to accidentally shoot their eye out with these. So please don’t use the gun inside the Metaverse unless you are trying to kill me.” His face turned striped in cockiness, “I hope you can kill me……. Before graduation. Now please put away your guns, and let's return to the real world. It’s time to start class.”

The bell rung as the students sighed and used their Metanav's to return. Class 3E, Kunugigaoka junior high; the assassination classroom. They had gotten used to the Metaverse and the mission they were trusted with. But how did they end up in this situation?

**\- - - - -**

It all started last year when the moon exploded, leaving it scarred in a permanent crescent.

“Nice to meet you. I’m the one who disintegrated part of the moon. And next year at this time I’m going to do the same thing to your planet Earth. Also I’m your new teacher. I hope we get along well~”

The students sat there in confused silence, _what the fu-._

A man in a suit stepped up, “My name’s Karasuma. I’m from the ministry of defense. What I’m about to tell you… Is extremely confidential. This is a top secret operation, and I need your help. To put it bluntly… I want you to _kill_ this monster.”

The students' eyes practically bugged out of their heads.

“Um… Excuse me… Is this guy some kind of, uh, alien who’s come to, like, destroy the planet?”

The octopus fumed, “How rude! I was born and raised on Earth!”

Karasuma shook his head, “Sorry, that information is classified. But he’s telling the truth, he is the one who destroyed most of the moon… And he plans to destroy the Earth next year. Only the world leaders know of this. So we’re trying to kill him before he can. In other words your assignment… Is to assassinate your teacher.”

He pulled a phone out from his jacket, flipping the screen around to show a red app with a black eye in the center to the class. 

“This is the Metanav. It randomly appears on certain peoples phones and gives them the power to travel to an alternate dimension based on people’s cognitions. In the Metaverse there are these beings called Shadow, the manifestation of peoples distorted desires. If someone's desires are distorted enough they develop a place we call a Palace, where multiple shadows gather along with that person’s original. In order to access these Palaces you need three things, a name, a place, and a distortion.”

He looked back toward the class, barely comprehending what they were hearing.

“There is however one Palace that doesn’t need those three requirements. The Palace of the general public who’s desires aren’t strong enough to form a Palace all their own. _Mementos_.”

A small ding came from the app, the world felt like it was pulsing around them.

_**Beginning navigation…** _

The students let out screams as the world began to twist and wrap around them. Slowly, it finally settled down to reveal that the world had bled red, the walls becoming alive with some strange energy.

 _**Navigation complete. Welcome to** _ **Mementos** _**.** _

“This is the Metaverse. Now that you’ve arrived the Metanav app should appear on your phones. You can’t delete it so don’t bother to try. There are very few things we know about the Metaverse but there is one thing that’s important about it.”

Karasuma swiftly pulled out a rubber knife and started slashing at the octopus, “The Metaverse is the only place where we can harm this thing! And even though this knife may not do any damage in the real world, it’s specifically designed to do damage in the Metaverse!”

Karasuma continued to slash, none of his swings hitting the target. “As you can see he’s incredibly fast!! And right now he’s trimming my eyebrows with amazing accuracy! But he’s powerful enough to blow up the moon and fly at mach 20!! In other words if he really tried to escape, we’d never catch him!”

“But that would be bor-ing!” The octopus interrupted, having finished his grooming session, “So I made a proposal to the world leaders. Although I have no intention of getting killed… I want to be the teacher of class 3E at Kunugigaoka junior high.”

_Why??_

Karasuma sighed and brought them back to the real world, “We don’t know why, but we accepted his offer under the condition that he never harm any of the students. At least while he’s here, all thirty of you can try to kill him every day. Oh, but don’t worry you won’t be doing this for free. If you can kill him before he destroys the Earth you’ll be given 10 billion.”

Their eyes practically turned to money signs, unable to see past the large reward.

“Luckily I don’t see you as a threat!” The octopus giggled, horizontal green stripes taking over his face.

“See those stripes? It means he’s looking down on you.”

“Of course I am! They’re just some junior high students! They don’t even have personas!”

The class blinked, confused, “Personas?”

“Personas are a manifestation of someone’s rebellious spirit.” Karasuma explained, “If one is under enough pressure while in the Metaverse they may ‘awaken’ a persona. These personas also have special powers, sorta like what you would imagine magic to be like.”

Some of the students started to imagine shooting a fireball into the octopus and exploding him, or freezing him from his head to his toes.

“An awakening is very rare however, and it is unlikely that many --if not any-- of you would get one.”

The students looked a little disheartened at that, but they still had bloodlust burning in their eyes. They were going to kill their teacher, and nothing will stop them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Later chapters will try to be better I swear but for now y'all'll just have this exposition dump of a chapter. I really hope to see y'all in later chapters. Bye~


	2. Awakenings happen when in danger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, I did NOT expect to finish this that fast but I guess I did! Just so y'all know, each new chapter is gonna cover the events of a volume in the manga. So this chapter covers the events of chapter 1.
> 
> ((this is literally like 5 times longer than the first chapter oof-))

“Hey Nagisa c'mere. Let’s go over the plan.”

“...okay” 

Nagisa got up to follow Terasaka and his sidekicks out the building. They stopped once they made it outside, Terasaka sitting on the steps while Nagisa stood in front of him, his sidekicks boxing them in. 

“So you figured out what it means when his face changes color right?”

“Yeah.” Nagisa affirmed, “It turns purple when a student gets the answer wrong, and red when they’re right. But the real interesting one is after lunch when his face turns-”

“-Yeah yeah we don’t need to know this shit, _you_ do. The plan’s simple, all ya need to do is stab him while his guard’s down.”

“Me..? B-but-”

“-Oh come on Nagisa!” Terasaka snapped, “We’re E-Class remember?! The losers of the school! We’d be lucky to ever see a chance like this again! We have to get outta here however we can!”

Terasaka stood up, shoving a small drawstring bag into Nagisa’s face, “ _Any_ way we can.”

He dropped the bag into Nagisa’s hands, “Don’t let us down Nagisa!” He taunted as he walked away, his goons laughing after him.

Nagisa stood there for a moment, reflecting on what _Terasaka--_ no, what _all_ of his past classmates had said.

_"Didja hear? Nagisa dropped down to E-Class!”_

_“Better delete his number then, you don’t wanna be connected to him!”_

_“He’s done for.”_

Just as he was about to spiral deeper the octopus landed before him, holding a massive toy rocket.

“Woah!” Nagisa yelped, quickly hiding the bag behind his back, “W-welcome back! What’s with the rocket?”

“Oh this thing?” The octopus hummed, “Why this was just a little gift your military sent for me! Specially designed for the Metaverse! Although, it never hit it’s mark fufufu.”

“H-haha, must be pretty rough having everyone out for you huh?” 

“Oh on the other hand! Look at it this way,” He propped the rocket down on a tree, “it’s simply a testament to my power! By being everyone’s target, it proves how strong I am!”

The octopus started walking to the building, “Now then! It’s time for fifth period!”

“Um, yeah…”

Nagisa looked down, pondering his words. _He… doesn’t understand. At least people recognize his power! He isn’t human, he doesn’t understand what it’s like to be ignored._

He thought back to his old teacher.

_"You ruined my reputation you know! At least now I won’t have to look at you anymore!”_

Nagisa clutched the bag tighter, _I could kill him. After all, he’ll ignore me too-- until it’s too late._

. . . . .

“Alright everyone! Let’s write some free verse poetry today. Your poem must end with the word ‘tentacles’. Bring them to me when you’re done and you’ll be dismissed~”

Kayano raised her hand, “I have a question!”

“Hm?” The octopus spooked, caught off guard, “What is it Kayano?”

“I know the year already started but what’s your name? We can’t just keep calling you ‘the strange octopus monster we were assigned to kill’.”

“Oh yes that is a bit long… Hmmmm I don’t know, why don’t you come up with one for me?”

“Okay~”

With that the octopus settled down, his face slowly turning pink as he lowered his guard. Nagisa waited a few minutes, writing down random scribbles on his paper in order to look busy. He discretely pulled his phone out and the shortcut to Mementos. They had found out a few days ago that the app apparently kept a record of where they went, which they could use to enter without having to input any keywords. And they had grown so accustomed to the transition between the Metaverse and reality that the transition was almost seamless. If they weren’t paying attention they might not even notice it happening, _especially_ if they’re day-dreaming off after lunch.

The octopus noticed Nagisa getting up, “Ah done already Nagisa?”

Everyone stopped to watch him, having noticed the change in dimension unlike a certain target of theirs.

_There’s a time after lunch, when everyone relaxes, that he lowers his guard. Nagisa thought, he’s so relaxed that he didn’t even notice us transitioning into the Metaverse! The people in E-Class are losers, outcasts. We have to show them they’re wrong! We have to show them we could make it if given the chance!_

_I’d_ kill _for that chance!_

Nagisa now stood in the front of the room, knife hidden from the octopus’s view via the paper he had scribbled on. Swiftly, he pulled the knife out and went to stab the octopus.

_I have to get them to notice me!_

The octopus caught the blow, “I told you already! You need to come up with a better-”

Nagisa suddenly launched himself at the octopus, enveloping him in a restraining embrace. The octopus was so caught off guard that he barely had time to notice the BB grenade in a bag tied around the boy’s neck.

_This is it!_

Terasaka pushed the detonator.  
.  
.  
.  
It exploded, BB’s flying everywhere. The class was horrified, no one was able to see where they stood over all the smoke.

“Haha sucks to be him! That 10 billion is mine!” Terasaka cheered, him and his goons getting up to inspect the damage, “Bet he didn’t see that coming!”

“What did you give Nagisa?!?” Kayano cried.

“Oh just a toy grenade.” Terasaka explained, “Stuffed with those special BB’s and some gunpowder!”

“What!?!?” 

“Relax it’s just a small explosion! I’ll even chip in for his medical b- h-huh?!?” Terasaka had made it to the front of the room where Nagisa’s body- err _would be body,_ laid.

The boy had his back turned to them, but it was obvious that he hadn’t truly sustained any injuries. He was covered by a thin, mesh like layer of shadows, that disintegrated when he sat up. He held his head, back turned to them and groaning.

“Actually I shed my skin every month or so.” The class looked up at the ceiling where the voice had originated from, shocked to find their very alive teacher, “I used it to cover the bomb and absorb the explosion. I didn’t like having to do that.”

They all shrunk away in terror when they saw the new color on his face, pitch black. _He’s pissed!_

“Terasaka! Yoshida! Muramatsu! You came up with this plan didn’t you?”

“W-what no!” Terasaka denied, “It was N-Nagisa!”

Faster than they could blink the octopus flew out the window, they sat in shocked silence for roughly half a second before the octopus flew back in and dropped a bunch of pieces of wood on the ground. They stared at the pile for a second before coming to a horrifying realization, _those are the cognitive nameplates from our houses!_

“I made a deal… I promised not to hurt any of you… But if you try to assassinate me like that again, let me remind you that _everyone else_ is fair game!”

And just like that the real weight of their mission hit them, this monster was going to destroy the world. And the only way to stop him, _was to kill him!_

“W-What are you?” Terasaka cried, “You’re just some nasty creature that blew up the moon, and that’s threatening to blow up Earth too? Why shouldn’t we use nasty assassination plots to kill a nasty creature?!?”

Just like that his demeanor shifted, turning red with a big O in the center, “Nasty? I thought your idea was brilliant! Especially your contribution Nagisa.”

The octopus reached over and patted the boy (who had been staring at the wall with his head clutched in his hands the whole time) on the head, “I give you a 10/10 for your smooth natural movements up until the moment you grabbed me! I was completely caught off guard! But none of you considered Nagisa’s safety, not even Nagisa himself! You’re all better than that!”

He turned to the class, “I want you to assassinate me with a method that brings a smile to your face, one that you can take pride in! You’re more than capable of that!”

The class sat there as they pondered his words, they hadn’t had a teacher that truly believed in them in what felt like years.

While they were distracted the octopus looked at his podium and saw that a corner of it had started to burn in the commotion. He thought back to something someone had told him, _What fine tentacles you have! With these… you’ll surely… make a fine… teacher. You’ll surely… be able to… reach...them!_ He put the fire out.

“Well then… I have a question for you Nagisa.”

Everyone jumped a bit, forgetting that the boy was there. They turned their attention back to him, only to see that he was still sitting on the floor, head held in his hand. _Is he ok?!??_

The octopus didn’t seem to pay attention to it, “I have no intention of getting killed. I’ll enjoy teaching you until the end of the year, and then I’ll blow up the world! Tell me Nagisa, what will you do about that?”

They watched with bated breath as Nagisa shakily stood up, head bowed down, still clutching his face in his hand. 

“I’ll…” The boy spoke, barely a whisper. They leaned forward to try and hear him better, “I’ll kill you before I let that happen!”

Everyone jumped back as he suddenly lifted his head up to face the octopus. Because there, where there had not been one previous, was a mask covering the upper half of his face. It was a silver mask that heavily resembled armor, with two engravings of twin snakes around the eyes, poised as if to bite them off.

Nagisa doubled over as a voice spoke to him in his head.

_**This is truly an unjust game…** _   
_**Your chances of winning are close to none…** _   
_**But if my voice is reaching you,** _   
_**There may yet be a chance…** _   
_**Are you going to just stand by?** _   
_**Or are you going to kill him?** _

“ _I’ll kill him._ ” Nagisa murmured, his voice laced with determination.

_**Good.** _   
_**Vow to me.** _   
_**I am thou, thou art I…** _   
_**Thou who art willing to perform any act to prove thyself!** _   
_**Call upon my name, and release thy bloodlust!** _

“Come to me, _Medusa_!”

Nagisa ripped off the mask, a shower of blood spraying from where it was torn. Gusts of wind tore through the room, flipping papers into people’s faces. A blue fire enveloped him, eventually burning away to reveal the boy in front of them.

His outfit had been completely changed. Gone was the old uniform, replaced with what most would consider to be assassin’s robes with the massive hood pulled over his head. Looped to his belt were strings of chains, and on top of his fingerless gloves were a pair of bracelets made to look like snakes.

And the class stared in awed wonder at what stood behind him. Because right there behind him, was a _Persona_. A hulking glowing figure of a stone woman, with snakes for hair and scaled armor.

The octopus did the closest thing he could to a clap, “Excellent! My oh my this is an exciting development! How will you put it to use~?”

“Nngh…” Everyone snapped out of their reverie as Nagisa started to fall over, having to clasp a hand on the teacher’s podium in order to stay up.

“Oh and there comes the after effects!” The octopus chimed, moving to help Nagisa (who’s persona had at that point disappeared) stay upright. “Don’t worry folks! Awakenings take a lot out of people so this is normal!” 

He guided Nagisa back to his desk before moving back upfront and calling for everyone’s attention.

“Now I know this was very exciting and all but we still have a class to finish! Let’s return to the real world now! Don’t wanna end up with some homework tonight do we~?”

The class groaned as one of them reluctantly pulled out their phone and brought them back. They worked on for a few minutes before Kayano had a burst of inspiration.

“Oh!” 

Everyone turned to her questioningly.

“‘Korosenai’ means ‘can’t be killed’! How about we call you… ‘Korosensei’? It’s a pun!”

The octopus-- _Korosensei_ looked positively gleeful, “Why that’s an absolutely fantastic idea!”

And with that, the day came to an end.

  
**\- - - - -**

  
“There he is!”

Currently, several students had hidden behind some trees in the hopes of getting the drop on their teacher.

“He’s making snow cones!... With ice from the North Pole…”

“C’mon!”

They quickly traveled discreetly into Mementos before running out, smiles on their faces.

“Korosensei!!”

“Can I have a snow cone too~?”

Korosensei dabbed his eyes, _finally- the students are getting it! Just look at those big grins!_

They pulled out their knives.

_...Aaaand they’re trying to kill me._

Korosensei dodged, stunning everyone, “Just so you know, your smiles look a little forced. Now, let’s get rid of these anti-me knives-”

The students look down to see that their knives had been replaced with-

“-and put a genuine smile on your face by stopping to appreciate these lovely tulips.”

Kataoka gasped, “Huh! Korosensei! These are our _flowers_!”

“We’ve been waiting for them to bloom for so long!” Yada cried.

Maehara turned to Isogai, confused, “Wait but we’re in the Metaverse, why’re they so upset?”

Isogai shook his head, “You know how one time a bug flew into the Metaverse with us? And how Okajima panicked and killed it?”

“Huh? Yeah why?”

“Well when we got back the bug was still there, but ended up dropping dead a minute later.”

“So wait, you’re saying that what we do in the Metaverse can have an affect on reality?” Maehara questioned.

Isogai nodded.

“Ooohhh. Now I get it! So they’re mad cause now the flowers will die in real life right?”

Kataoka stopped berating Korosensei to pull out her phone, “ _Let’s find out._ ”

_Uh oh, she’s mad!_

She tapped the app, and just like they expected, the flowers had wilted. Yada started crying harder. Korosensei was freaking out.

“I-I’m sorry!! I didn’t know!! I-I’ll get-” He zoomed off, only to return with an armful of “some new bulbs for you!”

He quickly got rid of the old dead flowers, before beginning to plant the new ones. The girls weren’t pleased however. 

“You can’t plant bulbs at mach 20!”

“R-right!!”

“Handle each bulb with care!”

“O-of course!”

“Hey…” Maehara started, “Doesn’t he wanna destroy the world?”

“I- guess that doesn’t include tulips??”

. . . . .

“Heya Nagisa! Doing homework?” Kayano approached.

“Sorta.” Nagisa answered, “I’m writing down his weaknesses. Might help us assassinate him some day.”

“Hm… so… any idea how?”

. . . . .

“You’ve probably already been told by the Ministry of Defense, but tomorrow I take over as 3-E’s PE teacher.” Karasuma stood in front of the principal, one of his underlings behind him.

“Don’t worry I have a teaching credential.” Karasuma reassured, “I’ll be there to keep an eye on the target. Along with providing technical and moral support for the students.”

“I trust you.” The principal said, staring out the window, “But the student’s safety is my top concern.”

“Understood.” But as Karasuma and his underling tried to leave the principal stopped them.

“Oh and do make sure to give me updates every once in a while.” The principle turned around, pinning them with his gaze, “What was it you said he was? A failed antimatter experiment?”

Karasuma nodded, “That’s right.”

“Well I do wish to know how he progresses.” The principal chuckled, “Afterall, I am a scholar. And the research is quite fascinating! Will the cells grow too much for his body? Just how much humanity does he have left?”

Karasuma coughed, “Yes well, I will be there every month for the staff meeting. I could just stay behind to debrief you on anything you wish to know.”

“Excellent!” He smiled, “You may go.”

After they had left the office the underling expressed his shock, “Huh, he sure was understanding!”

Karasuma sighed, “Of course he was, he was paid a pretty penny to keep his mouth shut. A monster with the power to destroy the world, one that even the military can’t stand against, who somehow wants to be a teacher! The only ones who know are the principal and E-Class. And it has to stay that way.”

They passed by some students talking about the harsh treatments of E-Class. _I see, they treat E-Class so poorly in order to make the ‘normal’ classes work harder! A harsh but effective system. Although, it must be hellish for them…_

. . . . .

Karasuma had walked onto the old campus and immediately ran into Kayano, who was holding a load of bamboo rods and was about to head into the Metaverse. 

“Oh, hi Mr. Karasuma!”

“Hello Kayano. I’ll be taking over as your PE teacher. I hope we get along.”

“Really? Does that mean I should call you coach?”

“Uh, no.” Karasuma looked around, “Where is everyone?” 

“Well…” Kayano hit the app on her phone, transporting them into Mementos.

As the world steadied around them Karasuma heard a commotion in the distance. As they made their way over Kayano explained the situation.

“Korosensei messed up our flower beds. And he wants to make up for it so-”

“Hey guys I got the rope!” Okajima called out from aways in front of them, having gone in a bit before.

“...he’s letting us play ‘Piñata’.” Kayano finished.

There in front of them was Korosensei tied from a branch, as the students took jabs at him. Nagisa was even summoning his persona, trying to get the hang of it.

Kayano walked up to him as he paused for breath, “What do you think Nagisa?”

“Yeah he’s definitely messing with us.”

Karasuma sighed and rubbed his forehead, _is this even an assassination attempt? When did Nagisa even awaken a persona?_

“Ah wait.” Nagisa remembered, pulling out his notepad, “Observing his weaknesses…”

“Hahaha! I’m only going to let you do this once so you’ll have to try harder!” Korosensei gloated, “I don’t see it getting any easier than thi-”

The branch broke.

Korosensei laid on the floor in humiliation for a few seconds, before the students realized the opportunity and started charging at him.

“ _KILL HIM NOW!!!_ ”

Weakness #1: Messes up when he shows off.

“Huh, I guess you notes might come in handy.” Kayano mused.

“Yeah… Let’s see what else…”

“Wait timeout! Timeout! My tentacles are tangled in the ropes!” Korosensei pleaded. They didn’t stop.

Weakness #2: Panics easily.

He jumped up, flying onto the roof of the classroom. 

“Crap!”

“He got away!”

“Bet you can’t get me up here!” He taunted, “Told you I was better than you! Nana nana boo boo!”

“And we were this close!”

Korosensei caught his breath, “Just for that you get extra homework.”

_That’s so unfair!_

Weakness #3: Sore loser.

“...He’s running away…”

“But this was our best attempt yet!”

They all stood there for a moment, catching their breaths before someone took out their phone and brought them back.

Isogai turned to the group, “If we keep this up, I know we’ll kill him eventually!” He encouraged.

The class brightened, “Yeah!”

“I wonder what I’ll do with 10 billion~”

Kayano turned to Nagisa, “Nagisa, what do you think? Can we kill Korosensei?”

Nagisa jumped a bit before confidently answering, “We’ll kill him. We just have to go all out!”

. . . . .

A red haired boy sat on the couch as two agents debriefed him on the mission.

“That’s everything. To prevent panic you are forbidden from speaking about this. If you do we will be forced to erase your memory. Your classmates have already been informed and have started on the mission. We believe you will do the same when your suspension is over?”

“...Hey, can this rubber knife really kill him?”

“It’s harmless in reality.” The agent explained, “But when the Metaverse it’s highly effective.

“Cool.” The boy dropped the wanted poster he was holding, stabbing it through the couch, “Human or not, I’ve always wanted to kill a _teacher_ ~”

  
**\- - - - -**

  
“One! Two!... Three! Four!... Five! Six!”

“Ah yes, I love the sound of the students playing out in the sports field~. It’s so peaceful~.” Korosensei sighed, “If only they weren’t holding weapons~”

The students were stationed around the field, following the motions Karasuma was instructing them to do.

“AGAIN FROM ATTACK STANCE ONE!” Karasuma ordered, “AND KEEP YOUR BALANCE!”

Karasuma turned to Korosensei, “I thought I told you to leave us alone. I’m the new PE teacher, remember?” He pointed towards a squared off part of the yard, “Go play in the sandbox and leave us alone.”

Korosensei tearfully fled, making a small dirt mound in the sandbox, “Why’re you so mean Karasuma?! My students _loved_ my class!”

“Uh, not really.” Sugaya chimed in, “Like the other day with your side stepping exercise…”

. . . . .

_“Ok this one’s really simple. Just follow my lead.” Korosensei started jumping side to side, going so fast that it looked like he was multiplying, “Let’s start with some low level visual cloning! After that we can add some cat’s cradle into the mix!”_

_“VISUAL CLONING???”_

. . . . .

“You have to admit, it _was_ pretty cool.” Nakamura sighed.

“Yeah, but I want to learn PE for _humans_.” Sugino complained.

Karasuma sighed as Korosensei started mournfully digging in the sandbox, “Finally some peace and quiet.”

“Um, why are we doing this Mr. Karasuma?” Maehara asked, “And with our target right in front of us too?”

“Assassination is a skill like any other.” Karasuma explained, “The more you practice, the better you get.” He pulled out his phone and tapped the app, bringing them into Mementos.

Karasuma turned to them, “Like you’ve been told, they’re shadows in the Metaverse. Yet, as you may have realised, they never seem to set foot onto the old school building. We have yet to discover why that is, however that means that we’ll have to go into the forest for this. Follow me.”

The class looked at each other, confused, before following him into a clearing near the entrance.

Karasuma drew their attention to a shadow roaming around in the distance, “Maehara, Isogai. I want you to amush it and lead it over here.”

“What? Why??”

He looked them in the eyes, “Because you all are going to kill it.”

They all flinched, “Kill it?!? B-but Mr. Karasuma we’ve already established that things that happen in the Metaverse can affe-”

“Yes I know.” Karasuma cut them off, “But these are low level shadows without a form right now.” He motioned to the shadow, which did in fact look like a blob of darkness, “They are made up of small petty desires that belong to no one, which means that if we kill these they won’t have any effect on anyone.”

They still looked a little hesitant, but nodded anyway. “Alright.” 

Isogai and Maehara took off, quickly slashing the shadow before running back.

“What do we do now??”

“Keep attacking it and aim for it’s weak points!” Karasuma ordered, “Dodge any blows you can! If you can’t dodge then try your best to block!”

They nodded, trying their best to follow his instructions. Nagisa summoned his persona, throwing attacks from afar as Kayano, Isogai, and Sugino covered for him. Kataoka and Maehara were trying to draw the shadow’s attention from the front, while everyone else attacked whenever they could. Soon enough, the shadow lay dead at their feet. Even leaving behind a few yen! (Which Isogai scooped up)

“We did it!”

“Holy cra-”

“Yeah!”

“Don’t get too cocky.” Karasuma warned, shutting them up, “The target is much stronger than the shadow you just fought. Just look,” He gestured over to where the sandbox was, “in the time it took you to kill that shadow he changed clothes, made some tea, and built a sand castle!”

_Show off!!_

“If you improve your skills to be able to take down higher level shadows, then you increase your chances of killing him! Knives, guns, sniper rifles, assault weapons… All basic weapons in assassination. And in my class, I’ll be teaching them all.” He walked away, heading over to Korosensei.

. . . . .

“...Mr. Karasuma’s scary…But also kinda cool…” Hayami muttered.

“Yeah!” Kurahashi agreed, “I think I’ll be looking forward to PE now!”

Over where Korosensei and Karasuma were standing, Korosensei was seething with rage, “You’re trying to steal them from me aren’t you!”

“What kind of a joke is that?” Karasuma huffed, throwing a knife at his head, “I’m here to oversee these students until they assassinate you.”

. . . . .

“Ugh, we have a test after this!” Sugino groans.

Nagisa chuckled, “It _would_ be great if PE was our last class of the day.” As they finished cooling down from the fight, Nagisa noticed someone nearby, “Huh? Look who’s here…”

There, looking down on them from the slight hill he was perched on, was…

“Karma!” Nagisa exclaimed, “You’re back!”

“Heya Nagisa.” He smirked, “Long time no see.”

He stepped down, moving toward Korosensei, “Woah! So that’s Korosensei? He looks like an octopus! Freaky~.”

“Hmmm? So you’re Karma Akabane?” Korosensei approached, “You were supposed to come to class this morning! It’s not good to be late to your first day of school!!”

“Hehe, sorry! Guess I got used to sleeping in!” He held out his hand, “Kidding! Sorry I’m late! It’s nice to meet you Korosensei!”

Korosensei accepted the hand, “Nice to meet you too. I look forward to a productive year.”

And as Karma squeezed his tentacle, it exploded. Korosensei jumped back just as Karma was about to get in another hit with his knife. Everyone stood there in suspense, _this is the first time anyone has hurt Korosensei!_

“Wow.” Karma looked down at his hand, “You are fast! And they weren’t lying about those knives being able to hurt you either!” He flipped his hand around, showing them his palms, “Even in tiny slivers like this! I can’t believe you fell for the first trick in the book!”

He walked forwards, getting up into Korosensei’s face, “‘Korosenei’... that’s a play on ‘Korosenai’ isn’t it?... ‘Can’t kill’…” He taunted, “I think they got your name wrong!”

“Nagisa…” Kayano started, “I haven’t been in this class long… So who’s that guy? What’s his story?”

“Well… We were in the same class first and second year…” Nagisa explained, “But he kept on getting suspended for fighting- I guess ordinary teachers just couldn’t handle him.”

Karma was walking away, doing knife tricks as he went.

“But under these circumstances… He may just be a star student…”

“Huh? What do you mean Nagisa?”

“When it comes to weaponry, fighting, and sneak attacks, Karma’s probably the best out of all of us.”

Stopping a ways away Karma pulled out his phone and brought them all back, _don’t run too far Korosensei._ He thought, _I don’t need exercise… I just need to kill you…_

  
\- - - - -

  
Karma spent the rest of the day essentially tormenting Korosensei. He caused a commotion during the test, used it to discreetly open the Metanav, flaunted his stolen gelato in his face, used said stolen gelato to try and trap him, then left before the day was even over. 

Needless to say, it just wasn’t Korosensei’s day.

. . . . .

Nagisa had just waved goodbye to Sugino when two D-class students noticed him.

“Hey it’s Nagisa!” One of them ‘noticed’.

“Freak fits right into 3E!” The other added.

“Over course! He’s a loser with no chance at getting back into our class afterall!”

They laughed, “Guess what! I heard Akabane got sent there after his suspension!”

“Woah! That sucks! I’d rather _die_ than end up in 3E!”

Karma chose that moment to burst onto the scene, literally, by smashing a bottle on the wall near their heads, “Really? You’d rather die?” He asked excitedly.

He held the broken end of the bottle up to their faces, “ _Then how about right now?_ ”

“AKABANE!!”

“AHH!!”

“Haha, they seriously thought I was going to kill them!”

Nagisa sighed, “Karma…”

“Relax~ I wasn’t _really_ gonna do it.” He ‘reassured’, “I don’t have time to get suspended… _Especially_ with these new toys I have to play with…”

He pulled out his phone and started toying with it, as they entered the train platform he turned to Nagisa, “So Nagisa, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you… You know a lot about Korosensei right?”

“H-huh? Uh, yeah…”

“Hmmm, well would he be upset if I called him an octopus?”

“An octopus?” Nagisa questioned, “Hmmm… Probably not. He’d probably take it as a compliment, I think it’s kinda like his trademark?”

“Hmmm… I just got this crazy idea…”

Nagisa stopped, “Karma… What are you up to?...”

“At first I thought he would be some kind of monster… But turns out that he’s an actually genuine teacher!” A train passed behind him, asking him into a dramatic shadow, “I can’t believe I get to kill an actual teacher with my own hands! Finally I can get payback for the last one!”

. . . . . 

“Could my day get any worse?” Korosensei moaned, “I didn’t have enough money to buy breakfast today! And I won’t get more until payday!” He sighed, “Oh well, guess I’m eating in tonight! There should be some utensils in the storehouse…” 

As he stepped into the classroom the world warped into Mementos, that in itself wasn’t uncommon, but what was strange was the fact that all of the students were pointedly staring down.

“Good morning. What’s the matter every-” He walked further in and stopped, staring in horror at the mutilated corpse of an octopus laying on his desk.

“I’m _so sorry._ ” Karma drawled, “I thought it was you and I killed it! I’ll throw it away if you hand it to me~.”

Korosensei stood there for a moment, before he picked up the octopus, “Okay.”

Karma smiled as he watched Korosensei approach, a knife hidden behind his back. _Come on Korosensei, I don’t have to kill you just yet! How about some psychological torture before we get to the_ good _stuff!_

But just as Korosensei was about to move into striking range, the tips of his tentacles turned into drills and he took off.

“Wha-”

He came back a moment later, with the addition of some groceries and a squirming shadow in his grip, “Let me show you something Karma, the speed of my tentacles, and the firepower of this shadow that got a little _too_ close to the classroom!”

His tentacles started to work, going so fast that they couldn’t see what he was doing, only brief flames every once in a while when he shadow tried to use a Agi (fire) ability.

“I will never… Let an assassin get away scot-free!” He declared as he shoved something in Karma’s face.

Karma quickly spit out the thing, confusion crossing his face as he saw what it was.

“AACK-”

“You skipped breakfast today didn’t you?” He stated more than asked, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! So I made some octopus dumplings at mach 20!” He held a box full of more dumplings up to Karma’s face, he flinched away.

He moved the box away, “Karma, it is my job to polish you. An assassin who’s blade has become rusty and dull is no assassin at all. Come at me all day long, and I’ll keep on polishing you! By the end of class today, your body and spirit will be sparkly clean!”

  
**\- - - - -**

  
For the rest of the day Karma kept trying to get the drop on Korosensei, only to be defeated in increasingly embarrassing ways.

At the end of the day, Nagisa ended up finding him perched precariously on a branch at the edge of a cliff in Mementos.

“Karma there’s no rush. We’ll all kill him together eventually!” Nagisa said, “Once he’s onto you it’s impossible to kill him yourself! No matter what you do! He's no ordinary teacher, after all.”

_Teacher huh…_ Karma thought.

_“Akabane!! Your attitude need’s work! Get’s ya into a lot of trouble after all!" The ~~teacher~~ bastard put a hand on his shoulder, “But as long as you do what’s right, I’ll back you up!”_

“Hell no.” Karma spat, “I wanna kill him myself. I don’t want him dropping dead anywhere else.”

Nagisa huffed, “Sure.”

“Karma, I sure did a lot of work on your hair today!” Korosensei taunted as he approached, “But if you want to keep trying to kill me, I have plenty more nailpolish and hairspray!”

“Heh, can I ask you something? You’re a teacher aren’t you?”

“Yes.” He answered, “I am.”

“And teachers… protect students with their lives right?”

“Of course. That’s what teachers do.”

“That’s good to hear.” He stood and pulled out his gun, pointing it at him, “Then I’ve got you!” He jumped, “Teach!”

“Karma!” Nagisa screamed after him.

_If he tries to catch me I shoot him. If he lets me fall he’s dead as a teacher!_

_...Freaky, your life really does flash before your eyes…_

. . . . .

_“You okay?”_

_“3E? They picked on you for such a stupid reason as that?”_

. . . 

_“Huh? Of course I was right!” Karma defended, “What can possibly be wrong with saving someone from a bully?!?”_

_“No Karma. You’re clearly in the wrong.” The bastard snapped back._

_...What?_

_“Are you nuts?! You beat up the school’s valedictorian! It’ll be on my head if this messes up his exams!”_

_You said you’d be on my side… You told me you’d have my back!_

_...Ah…_

_He’s_ dying _…_

**_It’s like he’s dying inside…_ **

_Something shifted inside of him at that moment…_

_“I supported you because you got good grades. But since you’ve damaged my reputation… Surprise! I got you a transfer! From this point onwards, you get to be a member of your precious E-Class!”_

_That day, Karma figured out a person could be dead and alive at the same time. And once he saw what that bastard was like on the inside, he was dead to him._

_. . ._

**_Oh how much he wanted to kill a teacher like him…_ **

_. . . . ._

_Korosensei!! One way or another, what death will you choose?!_

He landed. He was _alive_.

“What?!?”

“Karma, I take off my hat for your creative assassination attempt!” Korosensei said from… _under him??_ “If I saved you at supersonic speed your body couldn’t handle it. If I saved you slowly you would shoot me. So I had to get a little… _sticky_ …”

_Damn it! He turned his tentacles into a net!_ He tried to move his arms but they were stuck, _damn!_

“You can’t shoot me ahahahahahaha!” Korosensei teased, “Oh and by the way… Abandoning you isn’t an option. Jump off a cliff however many times you want, I’ll catch you.”

“...Heh…”

Korosensei brought them back to the top, where Nagisa anxiously ran up to them, hesitantly hovering around Karma’s back.

“Karma! I can’t believe you did that!”

“Well… It was the best plan yet.” Karma ‘reasoned’, “Okay maybe not the _best_ …”

“Out of ideas already? That’s a shame.” Korosensei cut in, holding up a bunch of beauty supplies, “Ooh just look at all this product I haven’t had the chance to use yet! Guess you’re more of a slacker than I thought~.”

Karma chuckled, “Don’t worry…” He stood up, “ _Tomorrow, I’ll kill you!_ ”

And as he turned around Nagisa and Korosensei froze in shock, because covering the left side of his face, as an obsidian black skeleton mask.

Karma’s knees buckled as a voice spoke into his head.

_**You made me wait quite a while.** _   
_**You seek the annihilation of your enemies correct?** _   
_**Then let us form a pact.** _   
_**Since your name has been disgraced already why not create havoc?** _

“ _I wouldn’t have it any other way~!_ ”

_**Then let us spread the seeds of chaos!** _   
_**I am thou, thou art I…** _   
_**No longer shall we be so weak!** _   
_**Discord shall be your home henceforth!** _

“Come on out and join the party… _Eris!_ ”

Nagisa and Korosensei were pushed back by the tidal wave of blue fire that enveloped Karma, when it dispersed it felt as if an entirely new boy was standing in front of them.

His outfit had changed, his school-not-appropriate blazer turning into a trench coat with an obnoxiously poofy fur lining at the bottom. His shirt into an hideously patterned silk button-up, the only tolerable parts of his outfits really being the neat dress shoes and slacks. Along with his bright red gloves.

And behind him was his persona, a lady in a dark longer than floor length gown. With enormous black wings that looked sewn together and a spiked crown laying in her hair.

Karma yawned as Eris disappeared behind him, “Man I am beat. Who knew almost dying and awakening one of those… What were they called again? Personas? Yeah that, awakening one of those takes so much out of people!”

He took out his phone and brought them back.

“Let’s go home Nagisa. We can get a bite to eat on the way!” Karma walked past, bouncing a coin pouch as he went.

“HEY! THAT’S MY WALLET!!” Korosensei screeched.

“Oh sorry teach. You really shouldn’t leave it lying around in the faculty room.” He tossed the wallet back.

Korosensei grabbed at it greedily, only to frantically turn it upside down, “IT’S EMPTY!!”

“Oh yeah, there was so little in there that I just threw them in the donation box!”

“W-W-WHAT?!?!??”

Nagisa sighed, watching the whole thing happen, _any assassin that tries to kill Korosensei gets sparkling clean-- more than they bargained for. That’s our assassination classroom for you. I wonder how we’ll try to kill him tomorrow?_

  
\- - - - -

  
The next day Sugino tried to get a drop on Korosensei by using a baseball that he had covered in BB’s. It failed, leaving him upset for the rest of the day. That is, until lunchtime. Wherein Korosensei had criticized the pitch he used, a copy of one of the pro baseball players that he looked up to. He told him that he had more flexible wrists, and helped him improve his pitch.

Then in science class, Okuda boldly walked up to Korosensei, brought them to the Metaverse, and then shoved some poison in his face. Asking him to try it. Korosensei, being the good teacher he was, agreed. The poison failed, but did have some strange after effects on his appearance. Korosensei sent her home with instructions on how to make an ‘effective poison’.

But the day after, when she had brought it in, Korosensei revealed that he had tricked her. He then went on to explain the importance of being able to communicate effectively, a lesson that Okuda had taken to heart seeing as what happened the day after…

. . . . .

Okuda burst into the classroom a few minutes before homeroom clutching two bags, one was her school bag, the other some random tote. She scanned the room before seeing her target and walked up to him.

“Sugino!”

“H-huh!? Yeah…?”

“I need your help with something, if you would allow me to show you…”

The rest of the class watched in confusion as Okuda practically dragged Sugino out of the room. But they all sat down because class was about to begin.

. . . . .

It was only during PE, when they were once again hunting shadows, did they find out what it was all about.

Okuda turned to Sugino, “Sugino now! Use the blue one!”

Sugino nodded running over to a tree, revealing the hidden tote bag that was behind it. He quickly pulled _something_ out, a sphere with some kind of blue liquid in it, before chucking it at the shadow.

The sphere smashed when it landed, encasing the bottom half of the shadow in ice. Giving them the chance to cut it down. When it was defeated Sugino ran over to Okuda and raised his hand.

“We did it!”

Okuda tentatively looked at the hand, before raising hers and lightly high fiving his, “W-we did!”

“Woah what was that?!?”

“Yeah! You just tossed it and it froze the shadow right to the ground!”

Okuda blushed as she explained, “W-well I took Korosensei’s recipe to Mr. Karasuma and he helped me change it so that it would work against shadows! Turns out all you needed to do was change a few proportions, add some potassium, and- oh wait I’m rambling. Sorry! B-but I also figured out how to change what it does too!”

She picked up the bag and showed it to the class, revealing multitudes of spheres full of different colored liquids, “I studied what the shadows seemed to be weak to in order to learn which of these would be effective against what! Then I put them all in these spheres to make them easily throwable! I-I’m really just lucky that Sugino agreed to help really or else these would’ve gone to waste…”

Sugino gave her a reassuring clap on the back, “Don’t worry about it! Your idea was great! I would’ve been stupid not to help!”

“Yeah Okuda you did great!”

“It’s amazing!”

“Oh ho and Sugino! Don’t think we didn’t notice your pitch getting faster!”

Okuda and Sugino flushed as the class complimented them. E-Class was becoming the place where they all belonged, and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm kinda sad that I had to smush Sugino and Okuda's chapters together for this but also not because I got to put them in (what I like to call) The Bomb Squad (tm).
> 
> Anyway we got two whole awakenings this chapter! Wow! I'm never doing that again!  
> All jokes aside, not everyone in class will be getting an awakening, canonically they tend to happen when the person's life is in danger, and the conditions just don't really apply to most of the others as well as they did in this chapter.
> 
> Also to anyone who's interested, the shadows and personas in the persona franchise tend to have types. I like to imagine that Nagisa's (Medusa) is a Frei type (nuclear), and that Karma's (Eris) is a Mudo type (dark/curse).
> 
> Both of them somehow ended up being from greek mythology, and I don't have an explanation for this. I just like greek mythology.
> 
> Anyway hope this chapter was good! See you next time~!


	3. Filler at its finest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is waaaay shorter than the last one since nothing really changes, it's just sorta establishing what's happened soooo yeah... :P
> 
> There is a bonus scene at the end though so I hope that makes up for it!

The month flew by as they explored Mementos and (unsuccessfully) tried to assassinate Korosenei. And at the beginning of May, they got a new teacher.

“This is Irina Jelavich. She’s going to be your new English teacher.” Karasuma introduced, gesturing to the woman that was currently attached to Korosensei’s arm.

Nagisa watched the scene intently, trying to see what face Korosensei would make.

It was pink. 

Weakness #5: Boobs.

Irina continued to fawn all over Korosensei until lunch break rolled around, and she dropped the act. After practically assaulting poor Nagisa for his notes, she unleashes her assassination plot. But she made a fatal mistake, not believing in the power of the Metaverse, she ended up unleashing her attempt in the real world. This caused the realization that Korosensei was _literally invincible_ anywhere except the Metaverse, causing Korosensei to retaliate back.

Being thoroughly embarrassed, Irina _tried_ to bribe the students to help her during her class instead of actually teaching them. Only to be met with them firing back, literally, with their erasers and pencils. And finally, after a discussion with Karasuma, she took up the role of teacher seriously, giving her the _loving_ nick-name of Bitch sensei.

  
\- - - - - 

  
After that they had to go to the dreaded school assembly. During which, Bitch sensei decides to flaunt her bitchiness to the world, some girls almost get them caught by showing off their newly decorated knives, Korosensei decides to crash in halfway through because he felt left out; and Karasuma probably gets a migraine after Korosensei steals one of their phones to go into the Metaverse, memorize what was on the handouts they didn’t get, and copy it down onto paper up in the classroom, before delivering it into their waiting hands.

And if any of the students were shocked about the fact that the handouts magically appeared? Well this was a school for the elite afterall.

Oh and Medusa’s effects on Nagisa’s psyche can be seen when he finally manages to confront his tormentors after the assembly.

  
\- - - - -

  
The principal sadly catches wind of Nagisa’s change of heart and takes it upon himself to make Korosensei aware of their place. This enrages the humble teacher into becoming determined to make their scores the best they can possibly be, and after a very forceful ‘get your lives together’ speech--that for some reason involved cleaning up the field with a massive tornado that the main campus _definitely_ didn’t find suspicious--the students were determined to do their best!

Their spirits are crushed however with the addition of unforeseen new material on the test, leaving them woefully unprepared and their dreams dashed. But in their time of darkness who shall appear but Karma! Revealing that he had gotten phenomenal scores, he bolstered their spirits! And like that, they were back on their feet!

  
\- - - - -

  
Faster than they could have imagined the school trip to Kyoto arrives! With tourism, assassination, educatino and shenanigans galor 3E were having the time of their lives! That was of course, before one of the groups got attacked. Taking two of the students…

  
**\- - - (Bonus) - -**

  
“Thank you both for staying behind.” The principal smiled from the head of the table, hands neatly folded in his lap.

Irina glanced at Karasuma, thinking back to the conversation they had before the meeting.

_“So he wants us to stay behind in the teacher meetings?” Irina quizzed._

_“Yes. He was very straightforward with the reasoning too, says he wants to keep tabs on the octopus. Our current cover story is that he’s the result of human experimentation with antimatter. So make sure to stick to the story.”_

_“Right. Moon. Mouse. Got it.” Irina summarized, causing Karasuma to sigh and rub his forehead._

_“Just don’t blow our cover.”_

_Irina gasped, offended, “Ex~cuse you! I’m a professional here! My whole job is going undercover! Hey wait- get back here-!”_

_Irina stormed after Karasuma, following him into the meeting where they said noncommittal things and didn’t input anything of worth just as instructed. Leading to the current situation of the real meeting._

“-however we have seen little to no change in the octopus’s status.” Karasuma summarized, carefully leaving out any and all mention of the Metaverse.

“Hmm. Well that’s a bit of a bummer. And here I was hoping for some interesting research!”

“Oh? You’re a pretty knowledgeable man aren’t you~” Irina flirted, leaning onto the table, “Bet you’re plenty powerful too… Say, is there a Misses Asano in your life?” Karasuma took a sip of his coffee, wondering when this’ll be over so he could take some migraine medication.

“Oh, no no.” The principle chuckled solemnly, “She sadly died in childbirth. Never even got to hold our son…” He trailed off, gazing into the distance for a moment before snapping back into reality, “Say! You haven’t met my son!” He realised.

Irina jumped, a bit confused at the turn of events, “H-huh? Well no, I suppose I haven’t. Though, I would place money that he’s just as talented as you.”

Principal Asano’s face lit up, “Yes he is!” He reached under the table to bring out… _a photo album?!?_

He started flipping through the pages, showing off photos of his son and describing them, “-And here is the first present he ever gave me! We went to the park and he grabbed the shiniest red leaf off the ground that I had ever seen! He ran back to me with it in his hands too, showing off the fine specimen. I still have it to this day, pressed into a bookmark by only the finest artesian bookmark pressers. And here’s his first ever soccer match-”

Asano kept on going, seemingly forgetting about his audience as he divulged into his memories.

Irina turned to Karasuma, who looked to be trying to drown himself in coffee, “Are the meetings always like this?”

Karasuma set down his cup, a vaguely haunted look on his face, “ _All the time._ ”

Irina nodded, slowly leaning back in her seat. She grabbed a snack from the bowl on the table, getting comfortable for what she sensed would be a good half and hour of the man bragging about his son.

_At least the man supplies the fancy snack chocolates..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, yes it's cannon that Gakuhou loves bragging about his son so I thought "'why not?'" and just added it. Hope this was ok! However fair warning, nothing much changes in the timeline changes so most of the updates up until ~7-ish are going to be mostly summaries, maybe with some new scenes thrown in if I can think of them.
> 
> Also I added that relationship tag because I head-cannon them being bros if given the chance.


	4. Oh wait some things happened

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote this all in one day i hope it isn't too bad please enjoy dkhfalekaglngoknalkdnv

After Nagisa, Sugino, Okuda, and Karma got their wits back together they quickly contacted the other groups to tell them what happened. The others were (understandably) shocked, and after consulting the guide book they were given and quickly made their way to the most likely destination.

Having made it to the building, they swiftly knocked down the door to find!... _Nothing?!?_

“Ah I see, one of them found a way to activate the Metanav! I’m so proud!”

They turned around to find that Korosensei had managed to meet up with them, digesting what he had said, Nagisa pulled out his phone and activated his nav. They shifted into battle stances as the world warped, and as the scenery settled down around them they saw that had really taken place behind those doors…

_Devastation_

All around the bodies of the high schoolers laid incompacitated on the ground, surrounded by scorch marks. And towards the back of the room stood Kayano, protecting Kanazaki with her _persona…!_

They did a double take, Kayano was adorned in a dark red knee-length dress with matching red heels. Accompanying that with black gloves, leggings, and a scarf wrapped around her neck. But most striking was her mask that spread across her face like butterfly wings, the inky blackness of the center spreading out into a burning red, making her eyes glow with something almost _primal_.

And behind her was the fading form of her persona, a small woman covered in a shroud and hovering over a small flame.

As the persona fully faded Kayano collapsed to the floor, Kanazaki and the others rushing to her side.

“I-I’m fine j-just a little tired!” She reassured, making everyone sigh in relief.

“That’s good…. But what happened?!?!” Sugino burst.

Kayano shook her head, looking towards Kanazaki to explain, which she reluctantly did.

“T-they had recognized me on the train. Back when I had snuck out every night to go to the arcades they had seen me. And apparently when they encountered me again they decided to k-kidnap us. B-but as they were describing all the ho-horrible things they were going to do, Kayano managed to open the nav and drag them here with us. A-after that they knocked K-Kayano into a chair a-and she… She awakened her p-persona, **_Hestia_**.”

They all sat back and sucked in everything Kanazaki had revealed, upset about the fact that they could have prevented everything if they had just _tried_ harder.

Korosensei cleared his ‘throat’ to get their attention, “Well we better get out of here soon in order to recuperate, come along now.”

They grabbed onto Korosensei’s tentacles as the nav brought them back, and flew out of there before the high schoolers could get to their senses and retaliate.

Afterwards they told everyone else what happened, which spurred on a _very_ emotional group hug (Kurahashi and Yada actually _cried_ ) and prompted a game night (wherein Kanazaki crushed them all). And after one strange situation of Nakamura trying to peep on Korosensei, the air had lightened and everyone began to really enjoy themselves.

All in all the night ended on a high note, with each of them reassured in the fact that the others would come after them if anything ever goes awry.

  
\- - - - -

  
That night Irina walked up to Karasuma right after he had ended a call, “Hey do you know where Red Eye is? I wanna see if he was up to hang~”

Karasuma sighed (as was becoming his default), “That was him I just got off the phone with. Apparently the octopus spurred on some sort of existential crisis and now he’s going on some sort of journey to ‘find all the colors’ or something. I didn’t quite get what he was talking about but he said it was very deep.”

“WhaAAaat no faaairrr!” Irina whined, “I wanted to go out to karaoke with him! We were gonna get black out drunk and bitch about assignments!”

Karasuma scoffed, “Somehow I doubt that.”

“I’m not lying! He really goes all out!” Irina cackled at Karasuma’s disbelieving face, “You should see him do country! I swear he gets so into it it’s like he believes he’s a cowboy waiting to reunite with his sweetheart from the countryside!”

Karasuma just chuckled at her overdramatics, “How do you even know that anyway?”

Irina, still giggling a bit, replied, “Oh we met once after a mission. Went out for drinks and got to know him a bit. It was after that that he suggested karaoke and the rest is history~”

Karasuma paused for a moment, “Is it typical to meet other assassin’s while out on the job?”

Irina let out a huff, turning serious, “Well yeah if the target is high enough, once someone becomes really powerful tons of people would be out for their head. For those kinds of targets you're bound to meet at least one other assassin on the job. Other’s it's more rare but still happens on occasion.”

He nodded, but as still a little incredulous, “And you talk to each other?”

“Why wouldn’t we? We’re a very small demographic in the terms of employment-population ratio you know.”

“Yeah but _why_ on _earth_ would you _talk to each other_?!?”

Irina looked down a bit as she finally understood the question, “It’s as I said, there aren’t many of us out there. You have to remember that we _kill_ people for a living, that doesn’t exactly do the best things for our psyche.” _Not to mention how_ brutal _some of the jobs can get,_ she doesn’t say, “We don’t see others like ourselves, so when we do it’s just nice to relax and unwind. Talk about our work and crack jokes like normal people hanging out with their coworkers.”

“We usually keep in touch too.” She admitted, “I’m even in some weird ass group chats with the fuckers, but it’s kinda… nice?” She snorted, “Hell, we’re kinda like a family. A very very messed up family mind you, but it’s nice to hang out with them at times. We take breaks you know, we’re only human.”

Karasuma stewed over what he heard as Irina stood up ( _when did they even sit down?_ ), “Well that’s enough deep talk for today, I gotta go tell the brats to go to sleep.”

“It’s not bad to care about people you know.” Irina paused in her stride, turning slightly to look Karasuma in the eye, “Having support groups is important. I’m glad that you found one.”

She flushes, “Don’t be ridiculous! I don’t care about those fuckers! They’re just there to be annoying and whiny! They could all just die for all I care!”

Karasuma simply smirked, “Sure.”

With one final huff of annoyance, Irina turned and walked away.

  
\- - - - -

  
The week after they got back it was announced that they would be getting a new student, which was exciting before they showed up to class and realised that she was a robot.

Things got worse when she interrupted in the middle of the first class.

“ _Mementos_.”

Everyone let out exclamations of alarm as they were suddenly transported, however the one that came from Sugaya made them all turn their heads.

“ _WAit you have BODY?!??_ ”

Turning around they all saw that yes, in the place where her box had once been, stood a girl that looked exactly like her. Before they could properly regather themselves, something even more shocking happened.

“Come to me, **_Pandora_**.”

They watched as three box-like structures appeared behind her.

“She has a persona?!?”

“Why does it look like that?!”

“UM- Why are her clothes the same!? This is completely defeating the point of the fancy outfits Nagisa, Karma, and Kayano have!!”

But she had already finished preparing her attack, and they barely had time to take cover before a multitude of guns emerged from her persona, and began a hail of bullets. None of them struck true but she was quick to shut down Korosensei’s cocky attitude.

“I will be more careful. Preparing for next attack…”

The next attack happened a bit sooner than they would have liked, taking place merely 5 minutes after the first one. However this one proved to be more effective, with her managing to take out one of his tentacles.

“Probability of killing you with the next attack, less than 0.001%. Probability of killing you before graduation, more than 90%. Preparing next attack…”

The pattern of on-and-off attacks repeated for the rest of the day, much to the distress of the others. By the end they were sick of it, and the day after the robot found herself unable to do anything due to being in a bit of a bind. Literally, having been tied up with duct tape by Teraseka so that she couldn’t attack. This spurred Korosensei into giving her an upgrade, making her friendlier and more team-oriented. Some of the students even decided to get to know her during lunch…

“Wow I didn’t know you could make things!”

She smiled, handing over the sculpture she produced from one of the boxes, “I can but only in the Metaverse! In order to assure that it is only used for assassination purposes!”

“Ooh that still sounds so neat though!”

“Hey-hey can you make flowers?”

“Hmmm I need more data on flowers, checkmate Chiba.” She said as she beat Chiba in their third game of chess.

“I never thought she would be this popular.” Sugino mused.

“Yeah, she even has a persona and everything.” Okuda added.

“HEY WAIT A MINUTE!” Fuwa exclaimed, “Why don’t your clothes change like theirs?!?” She pointed towards where Nagisa, Kayano and Karma (who had shown up to class for once) were standing.

“Oh that is because, persona’s are manifestations of one’s spirit of rebellion and will to live. Their outfits are manifestations by the Metaverse on what their rebellion looks like. I, however, am programmed around my persona, and my persona around me. Therefore since I am in essence solely a spirit of rebellion, anything I wear are outfits of my rebellious spirit. Does that make sense?”

Judging by the _extremely_ confused faces they were all wearing they did not, in fact, understand but still nodded anyway.

“Hey wait shouldn’t we come up for a name for her? Autonomous Intelligence Fixed Artillery is a bit of a mouthful.”

“Oh yeah! Let’s see… ‘Jiritsu’ means ‘Autonomous’... and ‘Ritsu’ means ‘Sincere”-- and that’s a regular name too! So why don’t we call her ‘Ritsu’?”

“Perfect!”

“You ok with that?”

She thought about that for a bit before smiling.

“It’s wonderful!” Sh- _Ristu_ agreed, “Please! Call me ‘Ritsu’ from now on!”

The rest of the day continued with a similarly cheerful mood, the class having quickly accepted Ritsu as one of their own. But her creators realized that someone had tampered with her, and came in during the night to ‘fix’ her. The next day they all sat in silence as they waited for her to make a move…

“ _Mementos_.”

They all stiffened as they were transporting in, flinching as she summoned Pandora. Preparing for an attack, all the students began ducking under the desks.  
.  
.  
.  
They waited for a bit when they didn’t hear anything, looking up, they turned around and saw something they weren’t expecting. There, emerging from Pandora’s boxes, were a vast array of flowers, along with the smiling face of _Ritsu_.

“Korosensei installed many upgrades, all of which my creators saw unnecessary and were deleted. However, he also taught me the value of teamwork and friendship. So I embraced my spirit of rebellion and hid those files from my creators, in a corner of my memory that couldn’t be deleted.”

As her words sunk in the tension dissipated, smiles painting their faces as they ran up and congratulated her.

In the assassination classroom they were in charge of assasinating their teacher. And now, one student stronger, they felt like they could really do it.

  
\- - - - -

  
The next day Nagisa, Kayano and Sugino caught Maehara in the middle of a dispute with Seo and his girlfriend (Tsuchiya). After watching Seo beat him into a puddle (and consequently get stopped by the principal who was passing by) they were thirsty for revenge.

And so they set out to do a convoluted series of pranks in order to defend their friends honor, and totally didn’t double as a testing ground for Okuda’s new laxative bombs. Nope. Not at all.

Either way that their intentions may or may not have laid, the outcome was particularly enjoyable. With Seo and Tsuchiya becoming heavily embarrassed in public as they scrambled to get to a bathroom that was down the road.

All in all, their revenge was a success.  
.  
.  
.  
_Not that that stopped Karasuma from scolding them afterwards._

  
\- - - - -

  
Later that week, Bitch sensei’s teacher appeared to try and take her away from the ‘failed’ job. Not knowing what else to do, Korosensei proposed a competition... 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so like, some notes i guess.
> 
> 1\. For those who don't know, Hestia is a goddess from greek mythology. She typically represents family, the hearth, and fire. It is typically believed that she gave up her seat as the 12th Olympian to Dionysus when he took his place on Olympus, but there is no precedent for this.
> 
> 2\. No one will stop my desire for a very crack-y pro assassin found family au and I am now forcing this idea on all of you.
> 
> 3\. I basically used Ritsu to attempt to explain some stuff that I thought had been poorly defined, I hope it didn't turn out too clunky!
> 
> Anyway that's all I have for now, thanks for reading my bullshit~
> 
> Edit (10/9) [SPOILER FOR P5S]: I forgot to mention this but in one of the persona 5 spinoff games, persona 5 scramble (or P5S), there is a character who is essentially an AI and has physical form in that game's version of the metaverse. Her persona is Pandora and I just kinda looked at her, then looked at Ritsu and went "Seems Legit". And boom, Ritsu's persona is now Pandora.


	5. As class continues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i had writers block the entire time i wrote this so please excuse how bad it is anloenakndogoajk enjoy

The mock-assassination battle between Bitch sensei, her master Lovro, and Karasuma as their victim turned out to be very straight forward. After Lovro’s assassination attempt not only failed but resluted in him getting mildly injured, he essentially gave up on trying to assassinate Karasuma. 

Irina however kept on trying, and after many failed attempts, had ended up practically begging Karasuma to let her kill him until she let her. Lovro had seen the effort she put in and decided that she could stay and keep teaching 3E.

  
\- - - - - 

  
It was raining the day that the new transfer student was set to arrive and everyone was excited, after hearing that he and Ritsu were supposed to be sent in together they could only imagine the power he must have.

Just as Korosensei managed to get everyone to settle down for class to begin, the back wall of the classroom started to groan. They turned to stare at it and watched in confusion and wonder as the wood started to split apart, eventually falling down and leaving a hole in the wall to reveal… the rain?

Just as they were about to question if it was a ghost, a boy with bright silver hair appeared. Literally. They had watched him appear before their very eyes from the head down as if he manifested out of thin air, phone in hand.

“I have proven myself stronger than the classroom wall.” He declared, walking to his seat and sitting down.

_Use the door!!!_

And as if summoned by some unholy being the door opened, revealing a man concealed in white robes.

The robed man started talking, “Allow me to introduce him, this is Itona Horibe. And I am his guardian, Shiro. I hope you don’t mind but I would like to stay to observe his first day, if that’s alright.”

Everyone sat in silence, not knowing what to say, before Karma spoke up, “Hey how did you get in here anyway?”

Itona sat there for a bit, then looked around and stood up, “You… You’re probably one of the strongest students in this class. But don’t worry-” Itona patted his head, “-you’re weaker than me so I won’t kill you.”

He continued walking forward as if nothing strange at all was happening, “After all I only kill those that are stronger than me. And in this classroom the only one that is,” He stood right in front of him now, sticking out his finger to point at him, “you Korosensei.”

Korosensei scoffed, “I doubt you’re ready to face me.”

“Sure I am.” Itona countered, “We’re brothers after all.”

_B-B-B-B-BROTHERS???_

  
\- - - - -

  
Once Itona had officially challenged Korosensei to a match class carried on normally. Well, as normally as it could with Itona spending most of the day copying Korosensei’s habits. It was kinda funny actually, and led to increasingly long-winded theories on _how on earth they could actually be related._

Eventually the day came to an end, and everyone buzzed in anticipation for the match to start.

“Let’s lay down some ground rules.” Shiro announced, “First one out of the ring accepts execution, ok?”

“Ok I agree. But on the condition that if Itona hurts the spectators he loses, ok?”

Itona only nodded.

“On my mark, assassination-” Shiro started, pulling up the Metanav, “-Begin!” They watched in anticipation as he pressed the app.

_And then in dawning horror as they saw Korosensei’s severed tentacle lying on the ground._

They quickly turned to Itona, to see that his outfit had changed. Instead of the uniform was a simple blood read tank top, white pants, combat boots, and wrist guards. On his face was a mask that covered half his face in a wreathing mass of tentacles that looked to be consuming it. And behind him, was the form of a _giant octopus_.

“Massacre him, _**Kraken**_.”

The persona moved forward, sending its tentacles in a flurry of attacks that Korosensei could barely dodge. That was, until Shiro revealed the ace up his sleeve in the form of a _laser_ that _paralyzes him,_ allowing Itona to get a few solid strikes in before Korosensei reverted to liquid form and got away.

The battle continued, Itona (with the help of Shiro) managed to keep on getting strikes in while more and more of Korosensei’s weaknesses started to show and be exploited. They could only watch as Korosensei got more and more battered, until all they could think was,

_Is this it?_

They were hit with a wave of dread, _what if he dies here? What if all our training was for naught? If Korosensei dies here then the world will be saved, but…_

_But…_

_But we should be the ones to kill him._

And as that singular thought passed through their heads, Itona went in for the kill. They waited for the sound. A scream of agony... A cheer of triumph…

...They heard nothing.

Looking back at the scene they saw the complete unexpected, Kraken lay on the floor, dissipating on the floor so fast they could only make out the fact that it’s tentacles had been cut off before it vanished.

“Hmm it seems like my theory was correct.” Korosensei said, causing everyone to look at him in confusion.

He dropped some items onto the floor, which were shockingly their anti-Korosensei knives. Taking the momentary stillness as an opening, he wrapped his tentacles around Itona and threw him out of the classroom, making sure to cushion his fall.

“You see, young Itona’s persona seemed to function an awful lot like my tentacles. So I thought that the anti-me knives might have a similar effect on it as it does on me. Who would have thought that I was correct?” Korosensei explained, face darkening and voice surprisingly serious, “ _Shiro_ was it? Would you mind telling me _why exactly they_ **worked** _on him?!_ ”

“Shouldn’t you be able to tell?” Shiro responded, “Oh? Silent are we? Did I bring up some bad memories?”

“...This isn’t something to discuss in front of the children, _Shiro_. Why don’t we go talk somewhere _private_?”

“Perhaps another time, afterall Itona has already been defeated. Meaning there is no reason for us to stay.”

“I didn’t win…? I’m… _weak_ …?” Itona muttered, so quietly that only Shiro had managed to hear him.”

“Now now, if he wants to grow and develop he should stay in our classroom and study with the others.” Korosensei announced, “Until you learn all you can in this classroom, none of you will be able to defeat m-”

“ _ **K̵ra̴k̸e̶n**_!̸”

Itona summoned his persona, both he and it looking unhinged. And as it’s tentacles lunged towards Korosensei, he threw his guard up to block the blow. But they were stopped halfway by Shiro, who had tranquilized Itona and was now picking up said boy.

“I’m sorry Korosensei but it seems like he wasn’t quite ready for school yet. I know it was only his first day, but he’s going to need to take some time off.” Shiro proclaimed, beginning to walk out.

“Hold it! You can’t take him, he's my student! Now that he’s entered this classroom I must look after him until he graduates.” Korosensei pointed one of his tentacles at him, “Besides, I still have questions for you!”

Shiro merely threw him a glance, “No. We’re leaving. Stop me if you can.”

And as Korosensei reached out a tentacle to touch him it exploded.

“Anti-sensei fabric. You can’t touch me.” Shiro coldly explained, “Know if you excuse me, I will take care of Itona’s tutoring for the time being.” And with that they left.

  
\- - - - -

  
After that Korosensei was embarrassed with his serious attitude during the event, not helped at all by the student’s teasing. But eventually the talk died down, overtaken by the next big topic: the baseball game.

  
\- - - - -

  
After Sugino had announced his desire to win the upcoming baseball game the class was on board. Korosensei had immediately volunteered to be their coach, and no one had argued. Right after he had taught them how to bunt however, Sugino was struck with inspiration, and had come up with a new way to train…

“Oh! Hello Okuda, what do you need?” 

Okuda had walked in on the boys training, carrying one of her classic Bomb Squad™ bags.

“U-um. I have the things Sugino asked for.”

“Wait really!?!” Sugino cheered, popping up from behind.

“Y-yeah.”

“You’re the best Okuda!” Sugino praised, “With this, we can do some real intense training!”

Okuda passed Sugino the bag, “I-it was nothing. All I really had to do was dilute the substances to a state where their effects would still be felt but only to a minor degree so that they wouldn’t cause any real harm.”

“Still, I wouldn’t be able to do anything like this. Good work!” Sugino raised his fist for a fist bump, which Okuda returned.

“Right! U-uh anyway I have other things to take care of, so I’ll be going now.”

“Later Poison Queen!” Sugino teased, waving her goodbye before turning back to the others (who had paused in their practice to watch).

“So,” Karma began, “what’s with the bag?”

“This is for the new training idea I was talking about!” Sugino opened it to reveal dozens of baseballs, each one faintly glowing a different color “I had Okuda make some of the elemental bombs we fight with and put it inside of these baseballs.”

Some of the boys started to look apprehensive of the balls, “Uhhh, you sure those are safe man?”

Sugino picked one up, tossing it up and down to test its weight, “She weakened the recipe so it shouldn’t hurt us outright, but it should have just enough kick to feel off putting. I was thinking that we could use these instead of the ball to make it easier for us to adapt to sudden changes in the game!”

Their expressions lightened, having been infected by Sugino’s excitement.

“That sounds like a great idea!” Korosensei praised, “Oh how it brings a tear to my eye to see how much you’ve grown!” he quickly took the bag into his tentacles, “Let’s start right now! Batters lineup!”

For the rest of the time before the game they alternated trainings between speed and resistance practice. Before they knew it the day of the game was before them, and they waited for it to begin, ready to win!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo, Itona huh? I made his persona the Kraken, which is widely regarded as a giant squid/octopus monster that dwells in the middle of the sea! I felt like this was the closest I could get to replicating the tentacles he had in cannon (since the whole tentacles thing doesn't really exist here so-).
> 
> Anyway! In case you haven't noticed, I have grown attached to the Bomb Squad™ and now hold this headcannon close to my heart. Literally the Sugino-Okuda friendship just seems so good in my mind so I just had to give Bomb Squad™ a little love this chapter with the baseball game!
> 
> Also I know the first half of the baseball game also takes place in volume 4, however nothing much really changes with it so it'll just be briefly mentioned at the beginning of the next chapter.
> 
> That's all I got for now, thanks for reading!
> 
> (and yes, the "the bastard badly cosplaying a ghost" character tag is Shiro. I just hate him and didn't want to give him and actual tag so.... ^ ^;;)


End file.
